[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by JusticePete

Pete,

What you see from the Cobalt Friction pads is what I expect to see. I think you are correct about the streaks being from the pad material. I think you are operating at the thermal edge of operation.

I've been doing some calling to brake pad manufacturers. The Hawk people were friendly but not really helpful. Their suggestion was that I did not bed the brakes in correctly. That's possible, but you would have thought that after a run on the track they would have been bedded. Could offer no assurances that any other product I would buy from them would not have similar problems if I did not get the bedding process just right. But since bedding process would vary across different cars, tracks, weather, etc. he couldn't tell me what my specific bedding process would be. Said it was NOT that I exceeded the temp range on the pads, because it would have turned blue (more on this later)

Spoke to the Cobalt racing pad folks. Wow, do they know their stuff (Andy in particular). Has tested all competitors' pads and confirms from the pix that the fronts of a 2011 Camaro is more than the DTC-30 can handle at these kinds of speeds. My sense is that he wasn't just trying to sell his stuff - he talked through what was in all probability going on here. Uneven heat distribution from the pad causing this kind of glazing at some points. So, not bedding, but too much heat. I asked about the "turning blue" thing and Andy pointed out that what color they turn depends entirely on the pad material. No way that every brake in the world turns blue if they are made of totally different materials. Makes sense, huh? So much for the Hawk guy.

Cobalt pads require no bedding to be effective, though bedding increases stopping power and wear by 10% apparently. So, rather than just try a different Hawk pad where I still might not get it bedded exactly their way, I am going to order Cobalt XR2 for the fronts and XR4 for the rears. Unfortunately that will take a bit to do (they don't keep inventory) so in the mean time I am going to clean up the rotors and put OE pads on, then use those pads for street driving when I am not racing. (sigh - finally giving in here).

Thanks to everyone for comments and thoughts. Just wanted to post resolution (at least so far) and will report more after VIR this weekend on OE pads, and then after VIR in a few weeks on Cobalt pads.

Pete